Suzanne L. Wolden, MD, FACR

About Me

I am a board-certified radiation oncologist who cares for children and young adults with cancer, including all tumors arising in the head and neck. I am a member of the pediatric, head and neck, ophthalmic, and bone marrow transplant disease management teams, and work very closely with surgeons and medical oncologists in these specialties.

Read more

I have extensive experience treating rare diseases in young people such as sarcomas, brain tumors, neuroblastoma, Wilms’ tumor, lymphoma, and leukemia. Radiation therapy is an extremely powerful tool for these tumors, but young patients are especially sensitive to long-term side effects. I therefore approach each patient as a unique individual, carefully designing a highly customized radiation therapy plan to maximize the benefits of treatment while minimizing side effects. I am a leader in the use of targeted approaches such as intensity-modulated radiation therapy, image-guided radiation therapy, and intra-operative radiation therapy for pediatric cancers and for head and neck tumors in adults.

In the Brain Tumor Center, I treat all children and teenagers with cancers of the brain and spinal cord (central nervous system). My clinical research has led to changes in our approach to the treatment of tumors such as medulloblastoma and central nervous system germ cell tumors. We are very mindful of patients’long-term quality of life and seek to maintain the highest possible survival rates while minimizing the risk of potential long-term treatment complications.

I am involved in numerous clinical trials and oversee large international studies for the Children’s Oncology Group in the areas of soft tissue sarcoma and Hodgkin lymphoma. I am involved with research on the late effects of radiation therapy through my collaboration with the Childhood Cancer Survivor Study.

I find it very rewarding to work with a team that couples extraordinary experience with compassion to care for patients with cancer. I am optimistic that our ongoing research will lead to higher cure rates as well as improved long-term quality of life for our patients.

See My Colleagues

Publications

Pubmed is an online index of biomedical articles maintained by the U.S. National Library of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health.

Clinical Trials

Research is integral to our mission at Memorial Sloan Kettering, and clinical trials help us discover better forms of patient care and treatment. For you, this could mean access to a new therapy or therapy combination. Click to see a list of the trials I’m currently leading.